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Emotion Knowledge and Attention Problems in Young Children: a Cross-Lagged Panel Study on the Direction of Effects

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Abstract

Attention problems are likely to hinder children in acquiring knowledge of their own and others’ emotions. Children with little knowledge of emotions tend to have difficulties with representing emotions, interpreting them, and sharing them, so that they are likely to spend more time in making sense of them and may thus appear to be inattentive. In order to disentangle the direction of effects between emotion knowledge and attention problems, 576 four- to- six-year-olds were interviewed at T1 and about 12 months later (T2) about their emotion knowledge. Their kindergarten teachers rated their attention problems, and their conduct problems at T1 and T2. A cross-lagged panel model indicates that children’s emotion knowledge at T1 contributed to the explanation of their attention problems at T2, after language ability and attention problems at T1 were controlled. The other cross-path from attention problems (T1) to emotion knowledge (T2) was not significant. Adding gender, behavioral self-regulation, working memory, conduct problems, or SES as alternative explanations by third variables did not alter this direction of effects. How emotion knowledge impinges on attention problems is discussed.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the kindergarten teachers and children for their patience in answering our many questions and Dr. Julie Klinkhammer, Dr. Martha Hänel, Uta Kraft, and our student interviewers for asking them. We also thank Dr. Jens Vogelgesang for statistical advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Psychology, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Scharnhorststraße 1, D-21335, Lueneburg, Germany

    Maria von Salisch

  2. Department of Psychology MS 3F5, George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA, 22030-4444, USA

    Susanne A. Denham

  3. Center of Methods, Leuphana University Lueneburg, Scharnhorststraße 1, D-21335, Lueneburg, Germany

    Tobias Koch

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  1. Maria von Salisch
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  3. Tobias Koch
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Correspondence to Maria von Salisch.

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Funding

This study was funded by the Ministries of Science and of Education of the land of Lower Saxony that was handed out to the Research Association for Early Childhood Education and Development Lower Saxony (Forschungsverbund Frühkindliche Bildung und Entwicklung Niedersachsen).

Conflict of Interest

Maria von Salisch declares that she has no conflict of interest, Susanne Denham declares that she has no conflict of interest, and Tobias Koch declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual children, their parents, and their kindergarten teachers included in the study.

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von Salisch, M., Denham, S.A. & Koch, T. Emotion Knowledge and Attention Problems in Young Children: a Cross-Lagged Panel Study on the Direction of Effects. J Abnorm Child Psychol 45, 45–56 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-016-0157-5

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